No better time than now to start a business

Each year about 600,000 Chinese students graduate with a degree in engineering in China with basically two career choices: work for an engineering company or start a business.

Only 3 percent of new graduates from Peking, Tsinghua and Beijing Normal universities think about starting a business as a top career choice; 52 percent say they are willing to start their careers in government bureaucracy, according to a recent survey conducted by Stanford University and Peking University.

Students argue that the lack of business opportunities in China is one of the main reasons they are unwilling to begin a venture.

For a long time, Europe and the United States have set the pace in entrepreneurship.

Recently, both created new programs to develop startups called incubators. These programs offer resources and consulting services to entrepreneurs and allow young CEOs to grow their startups dramatically in just a few months. For example, Y Combinator, which began six years ago, has already assisted 200 startups. The value of their top 21 startups is worth $4.7 billion (3.3 billion euros).

Governments in Europe have also created grants to fund innovative projects. Most importantly, European universities have established regions to provide a home for high-tech startups. For example, Silicon Fen, founded in 1970 by the University of Cambridge, allows students to create their own startups while still studying at the university. In the Silicon Valley in California, The Thiel Foundation goes even further by mentoring and funding students under the age of 20 who have agreed to drop out of college to start their own ventures.

Since the 1980s, the Zhongguancun district in Beijing has grown in a similar and spectacular way. In just 20 years, this business hub has created 20,000 startups with one new startup established every 4.2 days. One of the hub's greatest successes is Lenovo. Founded in 1984, Lenovo bought IBM's PC division two decades later, resulting in the formation of one of the largest vendors of personal computers.

Therefore, Chinese students should not be jealous of Europeans. Indeed in recent years, China's economy has developed dramatically, making Chinese businesspeople some of the wealthiest professionals in the world and equipping them with the resources to invest in Chinese startups. Surprisingly, only 2 percent of Chinese students think that funding is very available in China. Not only does China have a growing domestic wealth but also foreign venture capitalists, such as KPCB and Sequoia Capital, have started funds in China to invest in local companies. In a 2009 survey by Deloitte, China is considered to be the favorite destination for American investors.

Only a few months ago, investor Warren Buffett and philanthropist Bill Gates came to China to visit an innovative automobile company named BYD. Founded from scratch in 2003, it became the leading manufacturer of cell phone batteries in just five years.

BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu says that "In China, people of my generation put work first and life second". This innovative company anticipated the future of cars and started producing only electric cars. The BYD example is one piece of evidence that China has enough resources and infrastructure to encourage young students to start their own businesses, though there are still setbacks for future entrepreneurs, such as the lack of intellectual property rights, unpredictable regulations and industrial policies.

China has long been the manufacturing mecca of the world, but not anymore. Places like Zhongguancun are hubs of technology, top-notch universities and global investors. These factors create great opportunities and lead young Chinese entrepreneurs to success.

The author is president of ShARE, a nonprofit organization for students who strive to better understand the complexities of socio-economic and business issues.